WTF IS WRONG WITH MY ALK

[Maeda]

I consider myself pretty damn good at this reef chemistry crap, and I have NO clue what is going on with my sps tank.

 

My calcium routinely tests 450+ into the 500+ range. Not a problem.

My alk routinely tests 6-7 dkh

My magnesium hovers at 1250 no matter what I try.

 

I dose a TON of alk suppliment (bi-weekly) to go along with my 3 daily dosings of reef complete and recipe 1 alk solution.

 

My alk still sticks to being around 7 dkh or 2.5 meq/l ....

 

I just dumped in a LARGE bottle of magnesium supplement yesterday, and it barely dented my #'s.

I tested my salt, freshly mixed its at a dkh of 9.

 

I'm using multiple test kits to check and double check values.

 

Could some kind of built up organic acid be killing my buffer capacity? or maybe my large amount of top-off water is severely dropping the capacity? Some other unknown boding to all my carbonate ions? I'm so lost. Things are wayyyy off thankfully, but it's getting frustrating.

 

I want to get back to my old target values of

500 ppm calcium

5 meq/l alk

1500 magnesium

[mattie]

hi i have been thru this before.

its the product you are using is not as balanced as you hoped

especailly if you are using a 2 part solution.

try picking up some kent super buffer dkh. this product will allow you to easily achive the numbers you are looking for.

i encountered this when my sps corals started taking off.

also before you add anything like mag. besure you test for it as well.

most new product that are balanced for calcium sup. do come with mag, and strontium in correct amounts to offset the mag consumption.

 

hope that helps alittle

[Maeda]

hope that helps alittle

 

A little. Basically for the amount of calcium i'm putting in, the alk isn't matching up so it's low relative to calcium. Right?

 

I'm not a newb. I test for magnesium. I can usually tell by eye if my magnesium is low.

 

My corals are indeed taking off. Whats very odd is that reef complete is supposed to add magnesium relative to the calcium additions, but my magnesium is also very depleted.

 

MAYYYBE SOMEBODY could entice me to guinea pig the new Aqua Vitro line with some gallon jug samples. It sounds pretty balanced, that or i'll go back to using seachems reef buffer. It worked really well before I got on this save money using inferior DIY product business.

[Gwoardnog]

your alk problems are answered

 

 

a teaspoon at a time, mix in RO water before hand.

 

 

magnesium, who knows, I just went through a little over a half bottle of 300 gram bottle of it to raise my tank up 90 points. 6 teaspoons at a time... your results don't sound odd to me.

[cmador]

Are you topping off with just H2O or with Kalkwasser? Are you using a Ca reactor with CO2? I wonder if you let your Ca levels go down to the 420-430 range, if you couldn't raise the Alk - any reason you like your Ca level so high?

[dtfleming]

I think you use the same stuff as me maeda. I just ordered some Kalk from Bulkreefsupply to add to my topoff water. I use recipe 1 2-part also and have issues with maintain my alk. Im also thinking about getting a ca reactor from calvin415 or the via aqua one.

[Maeda]

I think you use the same stuff as me maeda. I just ordered some Kalk from Bulkreefsupply to add to my topoff water. I use recipe 1 2-part also and have issues with maintain my alk. Im also thinking about getting a ca reactor from calvin415 or the via aqua one.

 

ah. I have a feeling the bulkreef stuff isn't balanced properly or over the long term there's a flaw since your experience sounds like it mirrors my own.

 

Im guessing topping off with kalk should do the trick.

[Maeda]

any reason you like your Ca level so high?

 

Tremendous growth. The dosing regiment I have dictates extremely high levels because at the end of the day my levels drop. It's a modified blu-coral method.

[dtfleming]

yea, guess we'll see if the Kalk will help maintain the lvls. Good thing is its hard to overdose it. I have my ACjr set to run the ATO at night only. Guess I should say that you can overdose Kalk, but mixing it with RO water its hard to due.

[Maeda]

yea, guess we'll see if the Kalk will help maintain the lvls. Good thing is its hard to overdose it. I have my ACjr set to run the ATO at night only. Guess I should say that you can overdose Kalk, but mixing it with RO water its hard to due.

 

I'll let you guinea pig it if you don't mind.

 

Keep me updated!

[Phixion]

Trade you tanks Maeda, my Ca is 440ppm and alk is holding at 10.72 dKH, even 4 weeks since last W/C...

 

My Mg we'll find out when the AWT results come back next week that I mailed off yesterday, lol!

[Maeda]

You don't have a bazillion sps colonies.

[filefish949]

bottled Mg supplements have almost no MG in it at all, use epsoms salt or mag-flake and this handy calculator I just dumped 1.5 pounds of epsoms in my 180 to raise my MG 100 ppm.

 

the calculator will also help you calculate how much baking soda (alk) and prestone driveway heat (calcium) to add to your tank for the desired levels. super duper cheep way of maintaining anything larger than a small tank

 

you may also want to send $24 and some water samples off to A.W.T. to double check your test kits

 

yea, guess we'll see if the Kalk will help maintain the lvls. Good thing is its hard to overdose it. I have my ACjr set to run the ATO at night only. Guess I should say that you can overdose Kalk, but mixing it with RO water its hard to due.

 

set your ACJr. to run your ATO at pH under 8.0, if you need more to make up for evap, rais the pH 0.02 at a time until it seems to level out. you can very easly OD your pH with kalk

[dtfleming]

Tks filefish, thats why I was gonna run it a night when my ph drops below 8.0. but setting it to run under 8.0 sounds better.

[filefish949]

Tks filefish, thats why I was gonna run it a night when my ph drops below 8.0. but setting it to run under 8.0 sounds better.

 

YMMV

 

I have my 180 gallon set at 8.08 and my 7.5 gallon set at 8.22, that is just what each tank setteled in at. in the 180, I do not use a ATO because the 40 gallon sump can handle 5 gallons of kjalk without overflowing. the nano, I have to be more carefull i plug my ATO in the DC-8 and plug the dosing pump into the ATO, so both the level has to be down and the ph under 8.XX to pump kalk

[Maeda]

set your ACJr. to run your ATO at pH under 8.0, if you need more to make up for evap, rais the pH 0.02 at a time until it seems to level out. you can very easly OD your pH with kalk

 

This is pretty genius.

 

I guess i'll try the kalk too.

[bdare]

ah. I have a feeling the bulkreef stuff isn't balanced properly or over the long term there's a flaw since your experience sounds like it mirrors my own.

 

Im guessing topping off with kalk should do the trick.

 

The 2 part from bulkreef supply absolutly is balanced. It was developed by the reef chemist Randy Holmes-Farley. I had a similar problem using recipie 1 to bring up my alk because of the rise it causes to Ph. Precipitation occurs much more easily at a higher ph. I would strongly suggest using recipie 2 (baking soda) to bring up the alk then use recipie 1 to maintain the levels while helping to keep ph up.

 

Also... using a controller to dose kalk based to raise ph is not generally considered a good idea. There are other factors which influence Ph. I personally have my controller monitor ph and only turn off the ATO if ph gets too high indicating a kalk overdose. There's nothing wrong with ph getting below 8.0 during the night time hours.

 

One more thing.... AWT water tests are NOT RELIABLE! Just do a search at Reef Central on AWT and you'll see what I mean...

[rhunter513]

it's all about daily dosing equal parts of a two part doser/buffer

 

you'll see

[SeeDemTails]

it's all about daily dosing equal parts of a two part doser/buffer

 

you'll see

 

You sure? Some tanks, mine included, use more ca than alk, and my mg is around 1450ppm.

[bdare]

You sure? Some tanks, mine included, use more ca than alk, and my mg is around 1450ppm.

+1

[rhunter513]

yep

[dtfleming]

And here's the arguement, I also dose cal then alk. 2-part doesnt not have to be dose in equal parts per say. Ex. 20ml cal and 20ml alk so long as they are in perportion(sp) to each other. My tank uses more cal then alk. So I dose more cal then alk.

[bdare]

My tank uses more alk than Ca... go figure!

[dtfleming]

My tank uses more alk than Ca... go figure!

 

 

its cause your weird. i kid i kid

[bdare]

its cause your weird. i kid i kid

 

HAHA! How did you know? Do we know eachother?